HP Combats Waste, Boosts Security With LaserJet Enterprise Printers

HP's latest business laser printers are more energy-efficient while preventing snoops from getting their hands on sensitive information.

Hewlett-Packard quietly unveiled three LaserJet Enterprise monochrome printers this week: the M604, M605 and M606.
While designed for large workgroups (10-25 users) and rated for duty cycles of up to 20,000 pages per month, the printers do their part to help offices go green, according to Todd Brashear, worldwide product marketing manager for HP's enterprise single-function enterprise LaserJets and ink products. "How many times have you walked by a printer and seen unclaimed documents sitting on it? That's wasted paper, toner and energy," he told eWEEK.
Equipped with the HP JetAdvantage Private Print feature, the new printers start print jobs only "when the user has authenticated at the printer, helping to prevent print jobs from going missing," a security-enhancing side benefit, said Brashear.
Although overshadowed by major data breaches, like the ones that affected Target and health insurance provider Anthem, small-scale, paper-based leaks of sensitive information can prove damaging to companies as well. "With a large group of people using the same printer, there is the potential for confidential materials to be viewed or picked up by others at the printer," Brashear said.

"The HP JetAdvantage Private Print feature helps address this issue by queuing up print jobs and only printing them once the user has authenticated at the printer," he added. Other security-enhancing features include a built-in device firewall and secure erase capabilities that wipe a printer's onboard storage clean. "Also, a new touch screen helps users track the status of their print jobs so they don't inadvertently print duplicates."

All three models feature a 4.3-inch touch screen that offers access to built-in settings, tasks and PIN printing. Mobile printing options enable users to print directly from their smartphones and tablets, without compromising network security or logging into the corporate WiFi network first.
"People are using a wide array of mobile devices at work, and they want to be able to print from them," Brashear said. "These new HP LaserJet Enterprise printers make it easier to print from mobile devices by supporting several mobile print options, including NCF touch to print and Wireless Direct."
Performance-wise, the M604 can pump out up to 52 letter-sized pages per minute (ppm). The M605 and M606 can reach rates of 58 ppm and 65 ppm, respectively. Compared with its predecessor, the M601dn, the new M604dn prints 15 percent faster and is 12 percent quicker in generating the first page of a new print job (7.5 seconds versus 8.5 seconds).
The trio of new printers are also easier on the electric bill. The new designs result in energy efficiency gains ranging from 20 percent to 25 percent over previous LaserJets, depending on the model.
On the small-business front, HP also announced a major expansion of its printing supply delivery service, SureSupply Auto-Delivery.
The service monitors ink and toner levels for subscribers and automatically ships toner, ink and other supplies before they run out. HP is extending SureSupply Auto-Delivery to cover other major brands, said an HP spokesperson, "as well as offering customers a broader choice of resellers in North America and expanding into Europe."